Loviatar
Dogma «The world is filled with pain and torment, and the best that one can do is to suffer those blows that cannot be avoided and deal as much pain back to those who offend. Kindnesses are the best companions to hurts, and increase the intensity of suffering. Let mercy of sudden abstinence from causing pain and of providing unlooked-for healing come over you seldom, but at whim, so as to make folk hope and increase the Mystery of Loviatar's Mercy. Unswerving cruelty will turn all folk against you. Act alluring, and give pain and torment to those who enjoy it as well as to those who deserve it most or would be most hurt by it. The lash, fire, and cold are the three pains that never fail the devout. Spread Loviatar's teachings whenever punishment is meted out. Pain tests all, but gives strength of spirit and true pleasure to the hardy and the true. There is no true punishment if the punisher knows no discipline. Wherever a whip is, there is Loviatar. Fear her — and yet long for her.» The loviatarite cosmology considers the pain and suffering as an integral part of the world, and as such, something with what everyone must be able to cope with. As such, being able to deal with it, being acustomed to suffer and to withstand pain will mean to be better adapted to the world and to be stronger. If one is to survive, one has to get through all the tests that the world presents to all living beings, those who thrive under duress will perdure, those who don't will succumb and die. A worshipper of loviatar may be so driven by his deviant pleasure on the infliction of pain, or even in the suffering of it, or just suffering in itself without it having to be physical pain. But (s)he can also find in the suffering and pain the means of training and acquiring strength to survive, not only individually but as a species, for suffering is in the essence of reality. Hence a loviatarite will be keen on destroying all of Ilmater's worshippers, as their look on pain essentially differs from that of Loviatar. Where the Lady of Pain sees suffering as an essential part of the world that one must accept and even welcome in full strength to become stronger, Ilmater's view is that of it as something avoidable and that has to be soothed as much as possible. In the eyes of Loviatar, the consequence of Ilmater's teaching would lead to the weakening of the living entities, reducing their ability to adapt into the world and doom it to extinction. Pain is a tool of adaptation and strengthening. Loviatarite clerics pray for spells in the morning, during the prayer they flagellate themselves. Each season is celebrated with the Rite of Pain and Purity, in which the followers dance on broken glass and barbed wire while being whipped by higher level priests. A high loviatarite cleric is named Pain. Category:Deities